“The more we kept asking people and taking chances . . . people kept saying ‘yes’ and it just became this really cool thing,” says Hardy. “80 percent of them are my friends. The spectrum is really broad. We have everyone from Devin Dawson to Joe Diffie, and everything in between. I think there’s something for every type of country fan on the record.”

The new album will drop on Sept. 13. Hardy’s debut single, “Rednecker,” is currently No. 28 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.

Before his success as a singer, Hardy earned a rep as one of Nashville’s hottest songwriters, having co-penned recent No. 1 singles “God’s Country” (Blake Shelton), “Simple” (Florida Georgia Line) and “Up Down” (Morgan Wallen). Hardy also had a hand in writing FGL’s “Talk You Out of It,” Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You” and Blake Shelton’s “Hell Right.”